Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/495

 CHAP. III. SIAM. 413 spire of greater or less elevation on the intersection. Sometimes one, two, or three smaller gables are placed in front of the first, each lower than the one behind it, so as to give a pyramidal effect to the whole. Generally, the subordinate gables are of the same width as those in the centre ; but sometimes the outer one is smaller, forming a porch. In the audience hall just quoted there are three gables each way. These may be seen on the right and left of the central spire in the view, but the first and second towards the front are hidden by the outer gable. The point of sight being taken exactly in front, it looks in the view as if there were only one in that direction. The Burmese adopt the same arrangement in their civil build- ings, and in Siam and Burma the varieties are infinite, from the simple pavilion with four gables, supported on four columns, to those with twelve and sixteen gables, combined with a greater complication of walls and columns for their support. As the Siamese are certainly advancing in civilisation, it may be asked, Will not their architecture be improved and purified by the process ? The answer is, unfortunately, too easy. The new civilisation is not indigenous, but an importation. The men of progress wear hats, the ladies French gowns, and they build palaces with Corinthian porticos and sash-windows. It is the sort of civilisation that is found in the Bazar in Calcutta, and it is not desirable, in an architectural point of view, at all events, if, indeed, it is so in any other respect.